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Hello NASIOC, my name is Arthur and this is my 2007 STI. I have had a bunch of build threads in the past and a thread in my local Vancouver Impreza Club chapter but finally put a lot of everything together in my member car gallery here:http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show....php?t=2190223

I don't even know where to begin! The car and I have been through so much together. I first picked up the car at Carter Subaru in Seattle, WA in August 2007. From then on, the car kept going through changes and I had never ending plans (I honestly thought I would stop somewhere).

From a young age I always thought myself as being more hands on and more experienced with technological/mechanical things. When I was 12 I was already building computers for family and friends. By around 14 I was building and maintaining Nitro R/C cars and trucks and racing them on the weekends with friends after school. This is probably where I learned about air/fuel ratio's tuning the 3 needle carburetor, learning about how a clutch works and how different friction materials work, also about shock oil weight, spring weight, brake disc upgrades, and etc. A lot of the small scale stuff was a great stepping stone for me. I also rode downhill mountain bikes with 5 way rear shocks and 3 way front shocks. This is honestly where I learned how to tune compression, rebound, spring rates, and pre-load on my car. Everything I learned was self-taught through reading manuals, researching online for hours on my spare time, or just trying it out and hoping for the best My parents are both accountants and they know nothing about hands on stuff so I didn't have that type of dad to teach me anything. If they need a dishwasher changed out they didn't call a plumber, they made me do it after I finished my homework!

I worked on friend's cars before I even had my Subaru. My good friends had Acura RSX's and liked to modify them. Started with cold air intakes and exhausts, then we moved onto header installs, and coilover suspension with adjustable arms. Then getting more advanced doing ecu tuning through a Hondata K-Pro learning how to log and do adjustments. Finally got bored of NA power and went forced induction with a turbo kit. That was good fun and a great learning experience installing that. Point is, everything I did was step by step and was a learning process. I definitely didn't just jump in and build a Subaru motor .

Anyway, enough of my life story leading up to my Subaru. When I got the car, I already had Defi gauges my friends bought me for my birthday; had those installed the same day. A few weeks later I read on Nasioc how bad the factory tunes were. So instead of just getting a stage 1 reflash, I got a catless downpipe and exhaust, and flashed on an open source stage 2 tune with some of my own tweaks. After that, coilovers, wheels, tires and I took the car to autocross in 2007. That was fun till I took my car to a track day in 2008 and that is when the bug hit. It was really fun and I learned a lot about suspension setup and how to drive a car properly through the instructors at Proformance Racing School at Pacific Raceways. However, the car was pretty low on power compared to the 997 Turbos, GT3's, Z06's, and M3's out there so I was getting passed like I was driving a 200hp Civic out of low speed corners and on the straight. That winter I tore down the stock engine and the 8 month process of going from stage 2 to 511whp began.

I rebuilt the engine myself with new pistons, rods, bearings, and an ACT XT clutch that could hold more torque. I slapped on a custom made twinscroll T4 manifold and up-pipe mated to a 68lb/min Borg Warner S300sx 83-75 turbo and dual Tial 38mm MV-S wastegates. I planned and built the fuel system to include new feed and return lines, a surge tank to eliminate having to run more than ½ tank on the track, and an external fuel pump and filter. I also stripped as much weight off as I could. Removed everything from the whole dash to get the insulation mat out to the rear brake vibration dampeners to drop some more weight. Afterwards, I got the car tuned by Dominic Acia at Maxwell Power Services and the car was a blast to drive.

Soon I was passing the cars that were passing me just a season earlier. Best feeling I ever had. Stock seats didn't cut it anymore as my knees were getting bruised trying to brace myself in the corners so in came the bucket seats and 6 point harness. Then soon I got bored of the stock heads restricting my power and the Cobb AP not releasing the speed density that they said they would at that time so I got a pair of built heads, wired in my own Vi-Pec V88 standalone ECU and off to Maxwell Power I went again. End result: 597whp @ 27.6 psi on 92 octane + 50/50 meth injection. Did many track days after that and after a firmware update on the ECU caused my meth injection not to spray, I damaged a few pistons. With a track day coming up, I had the engine torn down 2 weeks before the event, dropped the rebuilt engine 2 days before and I tuned the next day! I actually did this a couple times. Hats off to the crew at Maxwell Power (Dom, Craig, Dave) for always getting my stuff completed in such a short time frame and fitting me into their busy schedule.

Did two street legal nights in my car, both times I only got one pass. First time I ran an 11.34 and then because the track got too cold, it was closed and couldn't do another pass. Second time I got kicked out for running 11.24 @ 127 with no cage on my first pass (see video where he says I have to slow down). That was the low boost map too on street tires! Have not had time to go back to do that 10 second pass because drag racing really never interested me. At the beginning of this season I needed more down force and grip to cut those lap times down so I added fender flares in the rear to allow full wheel travel of 275/35/18 slicks and I built my own 6mm thick splitter/100mm extension supported by its own aluminum frame bolted to the chassis. In addition I added a Kognition Design chassis mount wing to provide down force to the rear. After an unfortunate event with bad gas at the track, my forged CP piston took a dump and out came the engine again (at least I cut a few seconds off my personal best time). This time a Maxwell Power Signature Series block went into my car consisting of a Dan Benson sleeved block, JE custom pistons, and MPS +2mm long rods. Right now it's running at 25 psi putting out around 540whp on low timing/boost. Soon we will turn it up to 30+ and we'll see how she runs.

Currently working over 30 hours a week with 10 hours of school (studying Chartered Accountant in Canada) combined with studying, girlfriend and relaxing time, hard to balance time with the car and all but I end up getting it done somehow! Whether it be getting 12 hours sleep over 3 days I'll always have that drive to get the car ready for anything! I get the drive to keep going because I love the challenge and feel it's a great opportunity to learn some life skills that maybe I can even pass onto my own kids some day. People always think I'm a mechanic at a shop but I'm actually an accountant that works with a calculator. Playing with the car is just an expensive hobby and doing everything myself allows me to save money. Basically the only time I have paid for services is getting an alignment, corner balancing, dyno tuning, and machine work as it's quite expensive for those tools! I enjoy the satisfaction of not only being able to drive a built Subaru but being able to drive it hard and enjoy it. As you can tell from my YouTube channel I'm not easy with the car and I'm not afraid to put my work through its paces!

Thanks for reading and hope you understand the learning process I went through with this car and hopefully it is worthy to be a Top Scoob on Nasioc after its long journey! I am putting on the front fender flares on right now and hopefully will get a full photo shoot soon so I can post pictures up of the car in street trim as this is actually my daily driver although I take public transportation to work. Good luck to all and thanks to those who encouraged me to enter